Lafayette, La. – The Fordham softball team fell, 4-0, to #15/18 Louisiana in the opening game of the Ragin' Cajuns Classic on Thursday night, the team's 2019 season opener. With the loss, the Rams begin the year 0-1.
"Overall a pretty good first game of the season in a great softball regional-type atmosphere against a quality opponent," Head Coach
Melissa Inouye said, "We need to be a little sharper on defense and more aggressive at the plate on good pitches. Aughie had a solid performance and got stronger as the game went along and kept the game close against a diverse hitting line-up."
The Rams had a chance to strike first, putting their first two runners on base to start the game with a
Chelsea Skrepenak walk and
Brianna Pinto reaching on an error. However, Ragin' Cajuns starter Summer Ellyson was able to strike out the next three batters to get out of the jam. The hosts plated the go-ahead run in the bottom half of the frame when Alissa Dalton scored on a throwing error after stealing second base.
Madie Aughinbaugh, making her 48
th career start for the Rams, limited the damage thereafter and kept a clean second after working around a pair of two-out singles.
Louisiana provided the rest of the game's offense in the third on a three-run home run by Raina O'Neal. Aughinbaugh worked out of another jam with runners on second and third after an error and a single. The junior captain was perfect over her final two frames, striking out three, and provided Fordham's lone hit on the night with a first-pitch single to left field.
Next to Skrepenak and Aughinbaugh, senior
Kylie Michael was the other Ram to reach base, drawing a walk in the fifth inning. Aughinbaugh finished her night with four runs allowed, three earned, over six rames with a pair of walks and five strikeouts. The home run was the lone extra-base hit allowed by the junior. Freshman
Sarah Taffet was the lone Ram making her debut in the game. She played shortstop and batted eighth.
Tonight's game was the first under new head coach
Melissa Inouye and her staff. Inouye is the seventh head coach in Fordham softball history.
Fordham is back in action early on Friday morning, starting the day with back-to-back contests against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Incarnate Word, starting with the former at 10 a.m. ET.
